If you type “team-building” into your favorite search engine, you’ll discover dozens of activities that are meant to help your employees bond with one another and work more cohesively. Some of these activities range from playing trivia games to telling campfire stories. While these exercises probably work well for certain groups, many employees will dismiss these attempts as transparent bids to squeeze more efficiency out of them. They’ll probably think these ideas are hokey and a waste of everybody’s time.
And they’re not entirely wrong. Those kinds of activities only work well if everyone buys in, and they don’t accomplish anything outside of the teambuilding process. (Sure, the point is to build that comradery, but it sure would be nice if there were a practical side-effect beyond that.)
If you’re looking for an idea that goes beyond three-legged races and scavenger hunts, here is one that will not only give your team good practice at working together, but will actually be benefit more than the employees themselves: community service.
Purpose Beyond Pay
One of the most commonly cited reasons employees choose to remain with their employers is that they believe their work matters, that it’s more important than profits or paychecks. So, what better way to help reinforce that sense of meaning than actually helping to improve the surrounding community?
One of the best ways to do this is to actually schedule your staff to do this kind of work, rather than just suggesting it on your backroom corkboard. Engage them for their own ideas about what they’re comfortable doing, and go from there. If your business is closed one or two days a week, take the whole crew. (If you’re open all week, you’ll have to split people up, but then it’s a good idea mix and match employees each time to make sure everyone works together.)
Custom Tailor It
There are lots of ways to help, and it’s highly likely that you can find something that your business does that you can pivot towards service. —Own a restaurant? You and your team could work a soup kitchen once a month. —How about a hardware store? You could volunteer your team to help plant flowers at the local senior center. —A hot tub and pool showroom? Your people could give swimming lessons.
Fundly has a giant list of ideas that you should check out for inspiration. Any kind of service is great, but if you can tailor it to the specialties of your business and the wheelhouse of your employees, that’ll make the community service all that more personal.
Benefits All Around
When your employees work together outside of their normal work environment, their dynamics change as well. People can show other sides of their personalities outside of the context of working their jobs. Sometimes, you’ll even discover that members of your staff are really talented at things you didn’t even know about. Leaders could emerge, even. Those who are enthusiastic about service will likely be great candidates to move up within the company.
This kind of service also helps to ingratiate your staff (as well as your business) into the community. Indeed, this is a way of linking your business to the health and prosperity of the community around you. And not least of all, community service is great practice for providing great customer service. What better training could there be?
So, what’s the result? Better employee retention because they’re able to derive meaning from their relationship with their employee. Also, positive word-of-mouth as your business becomes an essential contributor to the neighborhood. —And yes, there are probably tax write-off opportunities to boot. You’ll need to talk with your accountant about how that might work, but if your staff is on-the-clock, the business is donating resources.
What’s Next?
Take a look at that list for inspiration. Talk to your employees about what they think. Check in with your local chamber and community centers to see what the area needs help with. Reach out to us and let’s brainstorm your ideas about generating employee satisfaction, offering the best customer experience possible, and much more.
Nothing happens until you take the first step. Let’s get started now!
